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Managing Sustainable Transitions
"Farmers are our first line of defence against climate change, but the way we are doing agriculture is causing climate change."
- T. Vijaykumar
At Kurien Centenary celebrations
Nov 26th, 2021
Soil, water, food and livelihoods:
Converging crises of agriculture
The ecological footprint of agriculture-based livelihoods is increasingly forcing us to rethink the future of farming with abysmal levels of soil organic matter, exploitation of groundwater, low nutritional levels of food despite increased productivity, rapid loss of biodiversity and the ever-increasing costs of fossil fuel-based agrochemical inputs in sustaining farming today.
Agroecology, a newer paradigm that recognizes the interdependence of livelihoods, technology and ecology, presents an alternative socio-technical pathway for a sustainable transition. We seek to understand the opportunities and challenges for alternative pathways through research and documentation and facilitate knowledge dialogues that can foster a learning alliance for multiple stakeholders to think, act and co-create futures.
Enabling a supportive ecosystem for inclusively responsible agriculture
Rethinking Agricultural
Knowledge
We analyse innovations in agricultural knowledge through detailed studies of
promising intiatives within the country
We document field activities and grassroots initiative to gain on-ground perspectives from Civil Society Organisations, activists, Social Entrepreneurs, and Rural Educational institutions
Learning from the Field
Mapping and identifying
Learning Alliances
We are building a supportive ecosystem across different levels of knowledge
and action through the process of learning alliances, at state and national level
Capacity building and
Mentoring
We enable learning environment for youth to engage with CSOs working in the agrarian sector through internships, while also building capacities of organisations engaged in the field.
Creating a Learning Alliance
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We have documented cases of institutional innovations to provide a framework for managing sustainable transition.
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We involve youth to explore opportunities in sustainable agriculture in collaboration with CSOs through the VKRI internship.
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We follow ongoing programs to explore innovations that can further opportunities for youth from mainstream agricultural colleges in natural farming with Natural Farming Fellows.
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We undertake independent research in the form of surveys and mixed-methods approaches to understand ground realities pertaining to the uptake and practice of agroecological practices.
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We undertake independent research in the form of surveys and mixed-methods approaches to understand ground realities pertaining to the uptake and practice of agroecological practices.
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We facilitate learning alliances at the state and national level by creating innovation spaces for multiple stakeholders to dialogue and learn from each other. These include:
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Exchange on 27th October 2021 we conducted a state level webinar with representation from, civil society and academia from across Gujarat, along with a special presentation by Socratus on their work on conducting a multi-stakeholder visioning exercise for sustainable transitions.
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A National Workshop on Rural Transformation through Scaling Agroecology, in collaboration with NCNF, was held on 27th November 2021. We hosted representatives from across India, as well as other technical organizations and individual experts. The discussion underscored the need for greater peer learning and creating consensus around salient principles of Natural Farming.
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To understand the curricular push to include Natural Farming in state agricultural universities, we hosted a webinar titled Agroecology in University Curriculum: Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainable Transition on 8th Feb 2022.
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A three-day Management Development Programme was organised in collaboration with Socratus on Systems Thinking for Managing Sustainable Transitions in Food Systems: Thought For Food. It was held between 18th to 20th July 2022 at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, and was attended by 27 participants from 12 organisations, across 8 states
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Managing Sustainable Transitions through building on
diverse forms of knowledge
Transitioning towards sustainable and equitable food systems requires systematic shifts in collective values, public policies, markets and knowledge systems. India has a unique advantage in leading the transition in agriculture given its large farming community and knowledge base.
However, as we know, the knowledge underlying any technology is often contested, with diverging interests of different players. In case of Indian agriculture, the dominant forms of practices, have eroded contextual knowledge of farmers.
Therefore, it is important to recognize innovations at the margin, that are enabling changes and empowering farmers, whether by formal institutions like RySS in Andhra Pradesh, and Orissa Millets Mission or collective efforts of activists and entrepreneurs, so that they can be represented within dominant institutional narratives. We aim to contribute to a growing discourse on sustainable transitions with a focus on equity, civic action and knowledge pluralism.